Retirement – Up Close and Personal – Bill Storie

I had a long chat with a very close friend of mine this week. He retired about 4 or 5 years ago, so he’s ahead of me in this adjusting to retirement game. He says that he tries to do something every day, whether it is large or small. He, like me, can’t do absolutely nothing all day, and can’t just watch movies or read books. We both agree. He plays golf, which I don’t. The thought of hitting a wee ball (or in my case, trying 6 times to hit a wee ball), then have to go find it, somehow has little appeal. In my sport, we put up nets to catch the ball !!

Anyhoo, he said something very profound. He said, ”When we were active in business we knew WHAT to do every day, we just had to prioritise what to do first etc. But now, the decision is simply WHAT to do”. A very subtle difference, but very true. Well said that man.

I used to be obsessed with keeping lists of things to be done. Yes, I do mean obsessed. In fact I was so paranoid about it that I took great pleasure in doing something which had NOT been on my list, adding it to the list, then striking it out. Great joy. Oh, and you’ve never done that you say… yeah right…. !!!

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The new car is getting closer. I told you a couple months back that the old Subaru Impreza is getting old like me. Maybe I just need a lube job and a new paint spray as well. Hmmm. Anyway, the new car is on the high seas as we speak. Now I just have to find the money to buy it. It’s now I wish I had worked harder, or longer. No I don’t, that’s not true. Juggling stocks and shares to free up liquid cash is tricky. Luckily, the few shares I have in my old Bank have gone up to a level where I am only 15 feet underwater on them (!!!), but flogging them will help get the car. On the other hand if you fancy buying the old Sube for a modest $50,000, send me an e-mail Bill@olderhood.com

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Last week I mentioned that I was going back out into the marketplace for part-time work. I called it getting “Back in the game”. I’ve spoken with a few people and most have been polite and prepared to listen. A couple of things in motion. But my goodness, some of these hotshot business people just can’t find the simple courtesy to even reply (including HR departments !!), even when they instigated the enquiry. What is it with these people…??…. maybe they plan on never getting old (“Let’s know how that works out for you”). Their day will come.

It made me wonder if other Oldsters like me, get the cold shoulder from these whipper-snappers too when trying to find a wee job to do to keep busy. Wanna share some thoughts with me….?….. Bill@olderhood.com

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We did our Third Podcast last weekend. I think we’re getting better at this. It’s certainly getting easier in many respects because we have so much to cram in. We are now getting a lot of feedback (Bill@olderhood.com) on many issues and concerns. We try to limit the podcast to about 7 minutes, so it’s difficult to condense the material. We’re not intending to lengthen the show anytime soon, but we do have some other plans that we’re working on. This week we talked a wee bit about pension annuities and draw-downs.

Finally, I read an article this week in one of our local papers about how to invest as an older/retired person. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m so-so knowledgeable about the investing game, but I can assure you that this article was way over my head. Pity the old man or woman on a meagre fixed income, but with investments, trying to work out what to do in these tough times. These articles I believe are written by people to show off to their friends about how smart they are, and how many whizz-bang words and phrases they can come up with. Utterly useless for the intended audience. Utterly.